The search begins 4

As the alarm sounds when Dave re-enters the decontamination chamber before he could even put his sterile suit on. Both doors slammed shut and instantly locks in place, as alarms sounds throughout the facility. Seconds later the alarm changed, and all the doors went on lockdown as the bio scan was triggered. The outside door was the first thing to be locked down then every other door was locked separating every section of the lab.

Dave wondered what the hell was going on, he was just getting back from lunch, and he had not even been back in the lab yet so how could he be contaminated? His first thoughts were that the system must be buggy again. All he knew was this was going to suck and was going to complicate his day. At least he was glad that he had finished his lunch and used the restroom before returning to cleaning. He thought that this must be some kind of mistake he had not been back in the lab, and he had followed the regular procedures that he had been taught just like always. Dave thought great the system is on the fritz again and he wondered just how long it was going to take to fix the system this time. Although something felt different this time and there was the lab and the way it looked, but he was sure that the lab had burned everything he had spent all morning cleaning it up.

It was a good 30 minutes before the first of them arrived at the sight and another 5 minutes for them to gain entrance to the facility and silence the alarm. Dave was glad to have that annoying sound off, he was the last one to be approached. Tim had already been tracked down and held in the room that he had been locked into. Dave was the second to be tracked down and held in place. When they got close enough Dave started to yell and question them.

He was flatly ignored they were studying a screen in front of then they were monitoring the floor seeing a spot here and there. It was easy to see that it was evenly spaced as it was in a footstep it leads directly to the chamber that Dave was in, and it led back to the lunchroom where Dave had sat and eaten. It tracked all the way back to the spot that it had dropped out of his boot and the trail had split as Tim had picked it up without knowing it and took it along the way all the way to outside.

As soon as they had seen that it was leading toward outside it was determined that the call to the general was to be made and inform him that the potential of escape was made. Major Stone stepped up and said, "No we won't be waking the general until we know that it is indeed actually out and alive. I thought you said that they were thoroughly inspected before they were allowed to leave and that the lab had been incinerated."

The head of the lab stepped forward and said, "That was all completed hours ago and everything was secure. It is still undetermined what happened after that."

The search was quickly taken outside the tracker still worked but not as well. They had to assume in spots where to go but it was not that hard to pick the trail back up. It eventually led them to the spot where Tim chose to do his smoking and the glass that had dropped off his shoe. They quickly quarantined the area and carefully collect the sample making sure to get the piece of glass and all the rocks and dirt that it was touching.

It was rushed off to the lab to check and see if any of the agents were released. In the meantime, they had to determine how it got out there and if the carrier or carriers had been contaminated by it. They were both stripped, and every inch was scanned their clothes and boots had been collected. After the scan had shown that neither of their bodies had been contaminated, they both had been cleared as far as the contaminated part goes but that was just the start of the questioning. They demanded to know their every movement from the time they had arrived. It was all correlated by the cameras, it was unknown how it got outside since Dave never went out there and Tim never went into the lab. Then it was put together that their lockers were close to each other. The spot on the sole of Tim's boots stood ought to like a bright light under the scope. It was not till Dave's boot was bent that they truly understood just what happened. When the boot was bent the gash appeared where the glass had pushed in the rubber sole had protected Dave from it. And the rubber had protected it from the heavy sanitizers that Dave had been spreading.

When Dave's boot had been discovered their worst fears were confirmed, a living cell was discovered, and it had started to break down the rubber in the soul of the boot. They had confirmed the potential of the organism escaping. Now there was no doubt left that the general would have to be informed. That was the last thing the major wanted to do was to wake the general with this kind of news.

Dave and Tim were completely scanned from top to bottom to verify that they had not come into direct contact with it in hopes that the situation could be easily contained. They both checked out fine without a trace of contamination.

Once the major got that report he was relieved. He thought that this all still can be contained. The only outstanding things that were left were the glass and the reports that were left from that. Well, Major Stone thought this was as good of a time to place the call as any other. As Major Stone placed his call the lab results came back. There was still a trace element that had been modified by the flames and the sanitizers that had been used. There was another live cell, but it had been altered on a genetic level and it was starting to die and decay since it had nothing to bond with.

They knew that it was dying and that it tries to bond quickly but they had never realized that the lack of bonding would kill it that quickly. At least the isotope that they had it in has bonded with it making it easy to find and track. Once the shard of glass was found the search opened up into a 360-degree perimeter. They wanted to leave nothing to chance so they were spread out looking for any signs that could have been a clue that the virus had gotten free. As they spread out the sign that anything was there, and there was nothing overlooked. The faint line that had been left and might have been seen inside the complex there was very little chance that anything would be seen outside. They had gone 200 yards in every direction without a trace as the sun started to set as the general pulled into the lab.

The first thing he did was to demand that the nearby base and town be sealed off and the base is put on full alert. That got everyone moving and the trucks full of soldiers rolled off to barricade the town. The first thing he wanted was to be filled in on all the current info that was available. The Major stepped forward and gave him a quick report of just the new info that they had gathered. The General wanted to see the place where the shard of glass had been found. He was glad that they had taken this seriously, the area was sealed off and a structure was already up, and the security was right on par for this type of event.

It was not long till the report of the virus dyeing it seemed that their worries were over. All their scans had come back empty. Everyone breathed a little easier except the general he was still concerned that something got out of the complex. As he stood there looking around, he noticed the storm drain.

General Tomson called over to the Major and asked, "Was the drain inspected and how far did they search?"

The major signaled over to the team leaders and put forth the questions it came back the private that had been doing the scanning informed that he scanned inside the drain, but no signs were present.

The general stepped forward and asked how far inside the drain was checked. What could be seen at the entrance was reported back? He turned to the major and said, "Do you really think that is good enough?"

Major Stone's face flushed, he didn't like looking bad especially since this whole incident was going to be giving him a black eye and it could easily be the end of his career. He then ordered that the drain be opened and scanned completely. They quickly got the equipment ready and the tools to open the storm drain. But to the major, it was an eternity waiting on them to carefully open it and he was hoping that they would see nothing, and this could finally end.

Once they got the cover open and the four scanners were all going inch by inch covering everything. At first, Major was relieved because they didn't show anything. To see that the drain was clean and dry with no signs of life that quickly changed once the legs of the eaten roach were discovered. They were almost overlooked but the movement of them twitching caught their attention. They gathered them as samples and quickly took them back to the lab. Before they left the general stopped them and asked them bluntly, "Are there any signs that the organism was responsible for this?"

A frown formed on the major's face as he already with his luck what the answer had to be. The tech turned and looked at the severed twitching leg and replied, "All signs say that it is possible that the subject was responsible."

The general turned and said, "We need to know what it has become and how we can eliminate it completely. Damn morons, I warned them that this was too dangerous to be kept. We need every hand on deck we need to find the host that has it now."

He turned to Major Stone and said, "Alert the troops that they are to stay in place until further notice nothing moves without my permission. They are to keep scanning until they find the host. Get the chemical agent ready in case we need to flood the drain and the surrounding area and get the equipment to check all the drains in the area."

The Major had never seen the general act this way he had always remained composed no matter what was going on, but for some reason, he was not composed anymore. He knew that this was dangerous but it was not that much different than what they had faced in the past, or so he had thought.